The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-11-26
EVOLUTION.

GbOAO AVN.
When Jesus used the smile, ''First
the blade, then the ear, after that the
full corn in the ear" to illustrate the
growth and gradual development of the
kingdom of heaven on earth, he really
describes it as what is now called evo-
luton. The doctrine of evolution is no
new discovery; every one who has seen
plant developed from it's seed has the
idea of evolution; and whoever has OBJ
served how, in history, one state of
society grows out of another, and how
one condition of things is the prepare
ton for another subsequent condition,
understands evolution in the social Or
der. You may call the law law of
growth, Of development or of evolu-
ton; each word means essentially the
same thing. 1t means that there is
nothing abrupt or casual in life; that
one thing opens out of another.
Swedenborg unfolded the idea of
evolution in what he named, 1.-THE Doc
trine of Degrees" "Discrete Degrees
and Degrees of Continuity" 1t means
that the universe is not mass of atoms,
or heap of sand, but an organic life
where every part depends on every
otber-many members but one body
that the universe is whole, and that
men must be carried forward together,
for if one member suffers all suffer.
Take the best men you can find and
shut them up in a monastery, that they
may become perfect Christians; they
do not become perfect Christians the
soul stagnates in this seclusion.' If
nation shuts itself up, and ceases to
share the life of the race, it stagnates
like monkish life in cloister China
shuts itself in such political monas-
terry, and its wonderfully progressive
activities were struck with palsy. No
nation can afford to say, "Let me be
sufficient for myself, and independent
of all other nations 10 The final result
of this would be Chinese paralysis.
When Paul said that the law was
school-master to bring us to Christ, he
implied this view of the development
of the present out of the past, and of
the future out of the present. The law
prepared the way for Christ Greek
philosophy and science also prepared
the way, Roman civilization prepared
the way; John the Baptist prepared
the way. When men saw the decay of
that worship of God in nature which
had fed the religious sentiment in the
childhood of our race, they could not
Immediately understand that the Christ
ianity which was taking its place-God
in man-was still more inspiring, and
carried with it moral influence I'M
known to nature-religions. That with
the coming of Jesus Christ God came
| inwardly to the soul. That henceforth
his presence was not merely in the
light of the setting sun and the round
ocean and the solid land, but in the con-
science, reason, and heart of man him.
self. The religion of nature had be-
come human reEg{6ni-- Emmanuel,
God with us.
If our religion is still in the blade,
what will be the ear? We can foresee
the future by the tendencies in the
present. We find around us every
where symptoms of deeper and richer
life; of firmer faith in mans immor-
tai nature, in the grandeur and dignity
of his mind and heart, and in his capac-
lty for knowing, loving, and serving
God. Such faith has a tendency to
raise us above ourselves, and has made
prophets and heroes, sages and martyrs
in all times. Thus in the progress of
our race-in the fuller development of
humanity-sh we continually ap-
proach nearer and nearer to the Divine
ideal of the one pure and unspotted
life, of the one uncontaminated exam
pie, of the one standard of perfect truth
and goodness.-Reu. James Freeman
Clarke.